Belgium’s GDP growth dropped 0.1 percent because of attacks

Belgium’s GDP growth dropped 0.1 percent in the first quarter of 2016 because of the March 22 attacks in Brussels, the governor of the country’s national bank said Saturday.

“In the first quarter of the year we have had a growth of 0.2 percent. Based on our estimations, we can say that up to 0.1 percent of the growth was curtailed,” said Jan Smets, the Governor of the National Bank of Belgium.

“It could be somewhat larger because [the crisis] has been going on for a couple of months,” Smets said. “And of course, because Brussels Airport is at stake, this is a very important hub for our economy,” he said, adding that the economic impact of the attacks will spill over into the second quarter of the year.

Despite severalattempts by national and local governments, Belgium is struggling to restore investors’ trust in its economy, and its tourism sector is still hurting. Tourism and service industries have launched several attempts in the past weeks to attract more visitors again.